Welcome to YT, Tyler. I'll see what we can figure out. I typed out the following as a first reply, then got called away to a farm emergency, then promptly fell asleep when I got back in.
As a disclaimer, I don't own a Ford tractor, but I've been loaned a neighbor's '62 851 that was becoming yard art after he got a new Kubota. I also know a little about electrical systems.
Do you have a meter? Around here, Harbor Freight is giving away their 7 function (probably last about 7 uses) meter with coupon. Or perhaps you can rig a 12v test light? Any 1156 or even a 1157 with one good filament with a couple wires soldered on, or in a socket with a couple pigtails would help you sort things out safely.
I'm guessing your tractor had an original positive ground 6v system that you converted to negative ground for use with the 12V alternator, and now when you touch the negative cable to the battery (with the positive hooked up to the solenoid), it cranks and tries to start. Correct? This is dangerous, simply because making a spark at a battery, especially a big spark, can ignite the hydrogen gas a battery releases, and blow it up. My brother had one blow the top off of two cell nearest the terminal he was connecting. Fortunately, only acid on his hand and shirt, and a hose really close by. Always better to disconnect and reconnect the ground at the far end of the cable if there might be ANY load, not at the battery end. First off, I'd remove the ground cable at the frame, connect the battery end (leaving the frame end loose), then go on with testing.
Solenoids and starters (and ignition coils) don't care which way the electricity flows. Alternators do. If you even momentarily goofed up and made the connections 12V + to ground, you've blown the rectifiers in the alternator. In my experience, you do not have to reverse the ignition coil, and in fact, when I tried that as a test on one of my tractors, it wouldn't run. "YAMMV".
If you have the standard Ford starting system with the 5 speed tranny, it has an on/off ignition key with a safety start switch push button that tests the neutral position in the tranny that if all is good, 'grounds' the starter solenoid coil. The solenoid has only 3 terminals, 2 big ones and a small one. The small one should have just one wire on it. There is an internal connection from the 'bat' terminal to the other side of the solenoid coil. If hooked up backwards (battery to the starter side stud), it won't work at all.
You may have a short to ground in the start switch circuit. You can test that by removing the wire from the small (8-32 thread) stud on the solenoid, then touching the ground wire to the tractor 'frame'. If nothing happens, you've found the problem. It may be the wire from the push button switch, or the PBswitch itself. If the solenoid has 4 terminals with a wire going to a coil resistor bypass, you may have the start button wire on the wrong small terminal.
If it still wants to start with the switch wire disconnected, it may be the solenoid is defective, or perhaps that you put both battery and starter wires on the same terminal. A test light from the battery + to the start switch wire (disconnected) should not light up until the start button is pushed (with tranny in neutral). Your test light (or meter) connected between the starter side of the solenoid to the battery ground cable should not light (or show voltage on a meter), until the solenoid is energized.
I hope this is clear enough to follow. Let us know how you make out.
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